Scandal Recap: "Top of the Hour"

After a forever-long hiatus, Scandal was finally back! The Case of the Week involved Lisa Edelstein as a successful CEO, Sarah, who needed to bring in Olivia Pope & Associates when an old extramarital affair was discovered by the press. The man in question was Judge Randall, the Grant Administration's newly named Supreme Court Justice nomination.

Cyrus (Jeff Perry) turned into a pit bull, and promised to destroy Olivia (Kerry Washington) and her client if she didn’t back off. Ms. Pope would not be threatened, but she did seem to go soft on the Grant Administration. In the meantime, Cyrus ruined Sarah’s reputation by painting her as a sex-crazed stalker in the media.

Eventually, the whole truth did come out about the affair, and Judge Randall had to decline his nomination. Sarah’s marriage was ruined, but OPA were able to subvert Sarah's forced resignation from her company due to a morality clause. The company’s board was blackmailed with all the skeletons hiding in their closets (which Harrison and Abby uncovered), and Sarah kept her job.

Olivia and Jake (Scott Foley) continued to dance around one another. She also gave him information that could lead to the safe return of the American hostages, which she’d obtained from the whole CIA mole/David’s dead one night stand situation.

A paparazzo caught Liv and Jake make the exchange on camera, and Jake freaked out. Wanting to keep the extent of his involvement with Olivia a secret from the president, Jake later took matters into his own hands. He broke into the photog’s home, and roughed him up, so he could steal the pics off his camera.

Next, Jake went to Olivia’s house with a busted lip claiming he’d been mugged. As she went about nursing his wounds, the captain smiled eerily into his own surveillance camera. He seemed to really get off on being in his subject’s living room. Creep!

When Mellie (BellamyYoung) found out from Fitz’s (Tony Goldwyn) new social secretary he was having mysterious late night meetings, she thought he’d resumed his affair with Olivia. She was worried Fitz would bring up “Divorce” again. Since Cyrus thought he was back on Fitz’s good side, he didn’t want to get involved.

Later, Cyrus assumed Fitz knew about Olivia representing Sarah, but was shocked when Fitz was taken aback at the news. Fitz ordered Cy away, and with a lot of misplaced anger, called Olivia. He berated her for doing her job, and not trusting that he could win the presidency on his own. Then, he told Olivia, “I trusted you, you know…. You were all I had. You ruined me. I’m ruined.” Olivia tearfully retorted, “I’m ruined.” Fitz quickly responded, “I don’t care,” before hanging up.

I love me some Olitz, but Fitz has never treated Olivia very well, especially since the “betrayal” reveal. It’ll be interesting to see how these two can find their way back to each other. They obviously still love one another, but so far it doesn’t look like either will able to forgive. Also, is anyone else as sick of Olivia’s self-righteous speeches being metaphors for her relationship with Fitz, as me?

Meanwhile, Huck (Guillermo Diaz) spent his time trying to teach Quinn (Katie Lowes) how to be a proper spy, by tailing CIA Director/mole Osborne (Kurt Fuller). They found out he used a local dry cleaners for drop offs, and confirmed his mole status.

Unfortunately for Quinn, she lacked Huck’s subtly. By episode’s end, Osborne and the people he worked with at the cleaners knew Quinn was on to him.

Jake took the information he acquired about the hostages directly to Fitz. He told the Commander-in-Chief there was a SEAL team in place, and Fitz gave the go-ahead. To the horror of Dir. Osborne, the mission was a success, and all hostages were rescued without any American casualties. This “win” for the Grant Administration also finally knocked the Judge Randall affair out of the news cycle.

When Mellie saw Jake leaving Fitz's office after a late night meeting, she did not assume her husband had “switched teams.” (Which, yeah, that makes sense. But…imagine if she had, just for a second?!) Instead, she realized Cyrus must be right about Fitz and Olivia really being over. He was “single” and still didn’t want her, his wife, back. The realization seemed to hurt the otherwise self-assured Mellie.

Mellie told Cyrus about Jake. Since Fitz hadn’t needed to consult either of them about his rescue mission, the frenemies commiserated over both being replaced in Fitz’s life.